Morning Star Catholic Girls Camp 2012

Friendship, prayer, sports, nature, crafts, music, add up to a week of pure joy. My daughter is radiant when I come to New Hampshire to pick her up and is floating on a cloud for a week or so. Her prayer life is deeper, she has learned songs, boating skills, dances,  and crafts, and made friendships which last. 

 I am so thankful to be able to give this week of joy to my daughter Bella each year. God bless the Sisters of the St Benedict Center for running Morning Star Catholic Girls Camp each year! 

The Love Chromosome

The Love Chromosome

The breakthrough we've been waiting for!

Dr Alberto Costa and  his daughter Tyche. 

Since I began blogging six years ago, I have been awaiting news that the research in Down syndrome would provide positive results. I know this will help lower the horrible abortion rate of those with Down syndrome.

Now, finally, we have a clinical study which proves that a drug, memantine, used for Alzheimer's disease, has applications for Down syndrome, it helped young people with Down syndrome remember better, in fact one person's memory improved tenfold!
This means we can give hope to those who are expecting babies with Down syndrome that research has been successful and will be followed by even more research, to help improve the quality of life of those with Down syndrome. And moms will not feel that their unborn baby has no hope. They may be more inclined to give birth since we have given them hope. HOPE.
 It is the first crack in the wall erected by scientists that believe that trisomy 21 is too complex to cure. It proves that the 'prevention' of Down syndrome known as pre-ntatal testing to abort babies with Down syndrome is a distortion of the wonderful discovery of Dr Jerome Lejeune. He intended that his discovery of trisomy 21 be used to introduce pre-natal therapies to mitigate the affects of an extra chromosome. 
We can now proceed to unlock more of the secrets which trisomy 21 reveals to us, possibly finding more treatments for other diseases as well; cancer, Alzheimer's. . . 
Thank you Dr Acosta for your persistence in seeking a therapy for cognitive delays of Down syndrome in a field which had all but abandoned them. 


Read the articles:
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20120718/Memantine-boosts-memory-function-in-people-with-Down-syndrome.aspx
and here
http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/17/can-a-pill-make-people-with-down-syndrome-smarter/
and here
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/364096/20120717/memantine-down-syndrome-memory-alzheimer.htm
This is a HUGE breakthrough!

Article on Dr Jerome Lejeune

Great article on the legacy of Dr Jerome Lejeune by my friend Barbara Curtis in Celebrate Life Magazine.
The Culture of Death would come tumbling down if we had a few more scientists with his moral courage and articulate defense of the scientific truth that life begins at conception and all human life has equal dignity. As the mother of a child with Down syndrome, Dr Lejeune is our patron saint, and I am asking him to cure my daughter's spinal malformations.
Dr Jerome Lejeune, priez pour nous!
Don't miss this wonderful memoir of the good doctor, written by Clara Lejeune Gaymard, his daughter, Life is a Blessing.available from the National Catholic Bioethics Center. 

Christina's Summer Plans

 While Christina was enjoying our new family pool on Sunday, I shocked her by reminding her that she began summer school the next day. She shook her head to say "NO" a few times, however, once she dried off, she rummaged in the hall closet till she found her backpack and put it near her shoes by the back door. She was ready for the inevitable, and even though she had to be sent to school in her pajamas today and yesterday, she seems to have adjusted pretty well. Its only for 2 and 1/2 hours twice a week for a total of four weeks, just so she remembers the routine, because she gets in a groove and it VERY hard to get her out of it. But there's much more to our summer plans than summer school.

There's Boot Camp at Crossroads Physical Therapy on Wednesdays. Christina does mat exercises for two hours once a week with other special needs children, and is learning to walk on a treadmill and throw a weighted ball. She hasn't had PT for months at school since her PT read my book, "A Special Mother is Born" and was inspired to spend more time at home with her preschool children. I was so happy for her, I couldn't object to my daughter's loss of therapy. So, FGod sees and provided us with Crossroads to facilitate some PT this summer.

Once a week, she will attend Farm School at Farmer Sally's Organic Farm. Bella is one of her instructors, and, for the third year in a row, Christina will learn what grows on a farm, how to plant, weed, water and harvest, care for goats, chickens and a donkey, and I will learn the difference between Swiss Chard and Bok Choy. We will learn how to eat more greens and to work the land together. I always arrive home with fresh smelling bags of organic produce, inspired to cook mountains of greens for my family. Expect some photos from this adventure!

And then there are visits to the beach, the mountains, and Grandpa's on Long Island. Summer ends with a long trip to Ohio to bring Gabbi to Franciscan University of Steubenville in August. Sounds like fun, right?

Mom's summer is more complicated.
In this time I hope I can convince United Health Care to pay for Christina's speech therapy at UCONN, and her Special Ed Director to allow her to bring home her Ipad from school. We are working with DDS to obtain this permission and a customized speech therapy education plan so that she will be helped to communicate better. IF I can get all these objectives met, then, my goals for Christina for this summer will be accomplished!